Free Republic

A group that supports the protesters in Baltimore gathered in Union Square Wednesday and shut down the outbound Holland Tunnel, the West Side Highway and several other city streets as they marched. More than 100 protesters were arrested as officers clashed with protesters around Manhattan, CBS2 reported. The protests followed rioting that began in Baltimore on Monday, in response to the police custody death of Freddie Gray. Several hundred people gathered in Union Square around 6 p.m., and during the 7 p.m. hour, about 200 people broke off from Union Square and marched down 17th Street despite an order by...

Hannity had on his show a Maryland Sheriff who is helping out in Baltimore who confirmed that the word he heard from Baltimore city cops was that Freddie Gray was bouncing himself around in the Police van trying to hurt himself. He also confirms that through their interactions with Baltimore city police officers, that they were told to stand down by the mayor and that they were incredibly embarrassed by it and frustrated. This sheriff doesn’t mince words and also slammed Obama for a rush to judgement against police officers. Watch the whole interview, it’s a good one:

So, now we are being told that calling someone a "thug" is racist. Toward which race, exactly? I pulled up an online dictionary and found this... noun 1.a cruel or vicious ruffian, robber, or murderer. 2.(sometimes initial capital letter) one of a former group of professional robbers and murderers in India who strangled their victims. Don't really see anything there that could be construed as being racist. If we cannot refer to these miscreants as thugs, what are we allowed to call them?

Antelope Valley deputies Must Limit Backseat Detentions, Be Polite By CINDY CHANG L.A. County sheriff's deputies in Antelope Valley must be polite, limit backseat detentions under federal deal A federal settlement made public Tuesday night prohibits Antelope Valley sheriff's deputies from routinely detaining people in the backseat of patrol cars and requires them to start most encounters by politely introducing themselves. Sheriff’s deputies in the high desert have been known for a harsh brand of policing that singles out blacks and Latinos, particularly those in subsidized housing. That reputation attracted the attention of the federal government, which this week reached...

According to a recent Gallup survey, of the total U.S. adult population (approximately 243 million U.S. adults), less than 1 percent, only .8 percent (approximately 2 million U.S. adults), are part of a same-sex couple.The same survey finds that approximately .3 percent (.3%) of U.S. adults are married to a same-sex spouse, a mere .5 percent (.5%) identify as being in a same-sex domestic partnership and, of the estimated .8 percent (.8%) of the total U.S. adult population that are a part of a same-sex couple, 780,000 are married. In other words, of the estimated 2 million adults that are...

With THE PLAYERS Championship set to start next week, the PGA tour mourns the loss of Calvin Peete ...

Police are searching for 19-year-old Andrew Cortez, who is wanted for homicide in the death of 44-year-old Rene Macias Pressa.A man that stabbed his friend and fled the scene of the crime left behind a bloody trail at least part of the way as he walked from the body to the border, police said. Police are searching for 19-year-old Andrew Cortez, who is wanted for homicide in the death of 44-year-old Rene Macias Pressa. Chula Vista Police were called to the second-story building at 45 3rd Avenue at approximately 1:30 a.m. Thursday. The crime scene is located east of Interstate...

Hillary Rodham Clinton isn’t just running against Republicans. She’s also running against parts of her husband’s legacy. On issues large and small, the Democratic presidential contender is increasingly distancing herself from — or even opposing — key policies pushed by Bill Clinton while he was in the White House, from her recent skepticism on free-trade pacts to her full embrace of gay rights. The starkest example yet came Wednesday, when Hillary Clinton delivered an impassioned address condemning the “era of incarceration” ushered in during the 1990s in the wake of her husband’s 1994 crime bill — though she never mentioned...

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has said she would like information to be released as soon as possible, but said Wednesday after talking with Mr. Gray’s relatives that justice matters more than speed. “Whatever time the state’s attorney needs to make that determination, the family wants to get it right,” she said. The Rev. Jamal Bryant, who delivered Mr. Gray’s eulogy on Monday, said he had spent the morning visiting high schools, trying to debunk “a rumor going through the high schools that somehow or other, there was a verdict coming on Friday.” A lawyer for the Gray family, Hassan Murphy, said...

<p>INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Millions of tax payer dollars stolen and now the company responsible will have to pay for their actions. Investigators say three brothers who ran E-biofuels LLC, out of Muncie, are behind the scheme and it was one of the largest fraud busts in Indiana history.</p>

Baltimore Protesters Go Free as Arrest Paperwork Backs Up BY M. ALEX JOHNSON AND JON SCHUPPE Dozens of people arrested in violent demonstrations this week in Baltimore were being released early Wednesday evening because police were unable to complete their paperwork in time, the state public defender's office said. As many as 101 detainees began walking free without charges about the same time that Baltimore police announced that their report into the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man who died in police custody this month, wouldn't be made public Friday. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts had set a deadline...

BALTIMORE — A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” of the vehicle and believed that he “was intentionally trying to injure himself,” according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post.

A large group of black teens rampaged through Charleston neighborhoods, targeting innocent people early Sunday. The Post and Courier reported: As many as 60 teens were roaming Charleston streets attacking pedestrians and drivers early Sunday, witnesses told police dispatchers in 911 calls released Tuesday. All the teens were black, according to witnesses, and all but one of the people attacked were white. Still, it’s unclear if the attacks were racially motivated or sparked by the unrest in Baltimore, which followed the recent shooting death of Walter Scott, a black man, by a white North Charleston police officer. [...] Terror could...

For those who might be interested in a transcript of yesterday's oral argument on same sex marriage.

JAKE MILLER CBS NEWS April 29, 2015 Hillary Clinton: Time To "End The Era of Mass Incarceration" Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke at length Wednesday about the recent unrest in Baltimore, addressing racial disparities in the criminal justice system, calling for an end to the "era of mass incarceration," and laying out a detailed vision for reform during a speech in New York City. Though Clinton's speech at the Dinkins Forum at Columbia University had been planned for months, it offered her a timely opportunity to comment on the volatile situation in Baltimore, which has been beset by protests...

The embattled pastor of a San Francisco parish has been the target of an unrelenting campaign aimed at pressuring Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone to oust him. At the same time, the charges against Father Joseph Illo are being used as part of a larger effort to lobby Pope Francis to remove the archbishop, according to local observers. This week, the Archdiocese of San Francisco quietly announced that a priest has been assigned as chaplain at the parish’s school. The connection between the efforts to push out both priest and archbishop became national news when more than 100 “prominent Catholics” published a...

<p>CHICAGO — She was born to a young Chicago couple, named Jennifer, and grew into a beautiful long-lashed child with wavy dark hair, big brown eyes and a yearning, youthful desire to be just like all the other girls.</p> <p>Only she wasn’t. Doctors first noticed her slightly enlarged genitals, and then discovered she had testes inside her abdomen and male chromosomes. And so began a series of surgeries to make things “right.”</p>

Pew! Pew! Soldiers with handheld energy blasters are the stuff of G.I. Joe, not real life … until now. The U.S Army is currently testing electricity guns for possible use against electronics on the battlefield. They don’t look like props from the popular cartoon show but, rather like regular standard-issue M4 rifles with a pair of antennas that shoot out from the barrel and then spread, giving the front end of the gun a musket-like shape. Soldiers “already carry rifles. Why not use something that every soldier already carries,” said James E. Burke, an electronics engineer with the U.S.Army’s Armament...

Inequality in wealth is approaching record levels again, as everyone now harps on not the 1%, by the top 10%. The top 10% of families own 75.3% of the nation’s wealth. So if you have $827,000 in total net worth (real estate, stocks, savings, everything) – that’s you. The bottom half of families own 1.1% of it. The families squished in between those two groups own 24.6% of the national wealth. The fascinating solution is always to tax the rich bastards more to drag them down to even the scale. This is like seeing someone with a nice watch and...